Malad dealer loses ₹1.50 crore in mobile phone con job
A Malad-based mobile phone dealer was cheated to the tune of ₹1.50 crore over a period of three years by a conman, who boasted of contacts with manufacturers and promised to get him more handsets directly from them at throwaway prices.
gautam.mengle@htlive.com
Mumbai: A Malad-based mobile phone dealer was cheated to the tune of ₹1.50 crore over a period of three years by a conman, who boasted of contacts with manufacturers and promised to get him more handsets directly from them at throwaway prices.
According to the Malad police, the complainant, Imran Khan (39), has been in the business for the last 20 years and buys handsets on a wholesale basis from suppliers based in Dadar and Manish Market. In 2018, Khan was introduced to Shadab Hussain, who claimed that he had contacts in all major handset manufacturing companies, and could get them at much cheaper rates directly from the manufacturers.
“Hussain assured Khan that he would make massive profits by cutting out the middlemen, and said that Khan would have to pay ₹1.50 crore in advance to get the supply chain going. Hussain added that he knew top officials in all the companies and sold his lie aggressively. Khan believed him and set about arranging for the money,” said an officer with the Malad police station.
The officer added that between July and September 2019, Khan raised ₹50.48 lakh and sent it to Hussain via online transfer. And when he asked Hussain about when he would receive the goods, Hussain had replied that he was trying but would need more money to supposedly pay the concerned people in the companies.
In his statement to the police, Khan said, “I had poured all my savings into the supposed deal and was desperate to get the profits that I had been promised. Hence, I started borrowing heavily from my friends and family members.
“I first borrowed money from my sister-in-law and then from a close friend but this only came up to around ₹19.75 lakh. I then started borrowing from some more friends and relatives, promising them a share of the profits once my deal was set up,” stated Khan.
Members of Khan’s extended family agreed to lend him the money as they believed that the returns would be massive. Two of his cousins mortgaged their jewellery for this purpose, while another relative sold a small plot of agricultural land to raise the money.
By the end of 2022, Khan had paid a total of ₹1.49 crore to Hussain in various installments and owed money to 10 people in all. By this time, Khan’s creditors, particularly those who had sold or mortgaged their belongings, started asking for their money back.
“Khan asked Hussain about it and the latter claimed that the manufacturing company had suffered massive losses due to a fire in one of its godowns. He also made Khan speak to one Sonubhai, who he claimed to be the CEO of a leading handset manufacturing company.
“This call placated Khan but only for a short while. With creditors lining up at his doorstep, Khan once again started chasing Hussain, who issued six cheques but also gave stop-payment instructions to the bank,” the officer said.
When confronted, Hussain claimed that the payment was going to be made by the manufacturers but their godowns had caught fire. A furious Khan asked how all handset manufacturers were suddenly suffering fires in their godowns and Hussain changed tracks. He allegedly threatened Khan that he had connections in the underworld, and that he would get Khan killed if he ever called again.
Khan subsequently approached the Malad police on January 11 this year and after conducting inquiries, the police booked Hussain for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code. Officials said that efforts are underway to trace and apprehend him.
